Sport, like no other South African institution, has shown it has the power to heal old wounds. Rugby and current Super 14 champions, the Blue Bulls, last weekend have again acted as an unexpected catalyst in uniting South Africans behind Bafana Bafana at Orlando Stadium in Soweto. This reminded us of when the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup in 1995, when Nelson Mandela donned the No 6 shirt of Francois Pienaar and the two united our country under one flag.

The importance of tax compliance in uniting South Africans should not be underestimated. South Africa comes from a past where the white elite held the best paid positions and the poor comprised mainly of unemployed. The result was that the disadvantaged poor were mainly unaware of citizens tax compliance responsibilities and its impact on service delivery.

Today, 16 years later, South Africa’s transformed black middle class has grown to more than 2.9-million, with collective spending power estimated at more than R250-billion and tax collection in excess of R 90–billion.

It is therefore evident that transformation has broadened the tax base to the benefit of all our people. Increased tax compliance, goes hand in hand with transformation to develop a common interest to the benefit all South Africans, with service delivery as the common goal!

Viva South Africa - Laduma Bafana Bafana!

Stiaan Klue

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) is increasingly auditing taxpayers who have zero-rated the sale of a fixed property in terms of the zero-rating provision, section 11(1) (e) of the Value Added Tax Act. Of particular concern is that Sars is actively seeking arguments to unravel the application of section 11(1)(e) of the Act, in what appears to be an attempt to increase collections through the mechanism of penalties and interest, in not attacking the formal procedures required for the application of the section but rather the underlying requirement that there was a sale of a ‘going concern'.

Trusts are a favourite tool of the rich and the mega-rich to shield the family’s wealth from generational taxes, such as estate duty, to keep the ostensible income of individual beneficiaries low whilst giving them access to money and assets held by friendly trustees, and to ensure that black sheep of the family cannot squander what has been built up over generations. Wealth normally buys expert tax planning. But not in the case of the taxpayer in ITC 1840 (2009) 72 SATC 79 where the monumental blunders of the tax advisers cost the trust nearly R80 million in donations tax – which could have been totally and legitimately avoided by the addition of a few words to the trust deed, and by a few expeditious decisions when flaws in the tax plan came to light.

Despite the economic downturn, SA’s large companies paid R61bn in taxes last year and collected a further R73bn on behalf of the government, a report issued by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed yesterday. This represented 20% of government tax receipts. The third annual PwC Total Tax Contribution Survey reflected that companies reported a 14% decline in profit in the wake of the global recession. However, taxes paid by these companies increased by 12%.

The SAIT National Technical committee prepared a submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on the Taxation Laws Amendment Bills, 2010.

Fasset held a focus group discussion with professional bodies to establish the needs of professional institutes in the Fasset sector with respect to the Fasset 5-year Sector Skills Plan (SSP) 2011-2016.

This ruling deals with the tax implications, arising from an Unincorporated Joint Venture Agreement (the UJV Agreement). In relation to income tax.

This ruling deals with the accrual date of a liquidation benefit payable by a defined contribution provident fund to its members as a result of it being liquidated and the late penalty interest that may be payable by the fund once the Registrar of Pension Funds (the Registrar) has directed the liquidator of the fund to complete the liquidation.

As a result of details provided to the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, Brazil and Indonesia are now ranked in the category of jurisdictions that have substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard.

The OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs has released a Report which contains proposed changes to the Commentary on the OECD Model Tax Convention dealing with the question of the extent to which either collective investment vehicles (CIVs) or their investors are entitled to treaty benefits on income received by the CIVs.

The effects of the recent economic crisis have stretched policy frameworks in many OECD countries to breaking point. How can policy settings be strengthened? What lessons have been learnt? What policies have increased policy effectiveness, allowed economies to withstand large adverse shocks and prevented the development of large imbalances and asset price misalignments?